Article: 928 of sgi.talk.ratical
From: (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Subject: 12/92: Shoshone Sovereignty is being violated by U.S. RIGHT NOW
Summary: Treaty of Ruby Valley continues to be violated by US government
Keywords: US actions confirm its word--agreed to in--treaties is not worth shit
Date: 9 Dec 1992 05:11:46 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 178
Mary and Carrie Dann are two Western Shoshone sisters, the
matriarchs of a community of self-sufficient Western Shoshone
ranchers. Their family has lived and cared for their lands since
long before there was a United States. The Treaty of Ruby Valley
guaranteed them undisturbed use of their traditional lands forever.
Forever was until 1973. That year the Bureau of Land Management
cited the Danns for trespassing on "BLM lands." The Danns defense
was their treaty, still in force, and never repudiated by either
side. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court where the U.S.
position prevailed.
Shoshone elder Glenn Holley succinctly summarized U.S. dealings
with the Shoshone people when he said, "Nothing happened in 1872.
No land was `taken' by the government. We never lost that land, and
we're not selling it. In our religion, it is forbidden to take
money for land. What's really happening is that the U.S. government
. . . is stealing the land from us right now."
As the article below states, the continuing abrogation of the treaty of Ruby
Valley in 1863--signed by the US government and the Shoshone people, which
"ceded no territory to the United States, and . . . allowed only a limited
number of activities by the U.S., including the construction of a railroad
through Shoshone territory"--indicates just how "honorable" and "reliable"
the word of the US government is. Remember too, the US Department of
Energy's nuclear bomb test site illegally occupies Shoshone land in complete
violation of the Treaty of Ruby Valley and that this land is the most bombed
area on Mother Earth. What does such disdain and contempt for the rule and
letter of the law as exhibited by the US government teach all children who
are citizens of this country growing up today? What else, but that the rule
of law, as practiced by their own government, is arbitrary, duplicitous, and
not honorable or possessing integrity. How can "democracy" "liberty" and
legitamacy of authority possibly be practiced and taught to the next
generation, much less respected, in such a culture?
-- ratitor
from NativeNet:
|Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 22:02:21 MST
|Sender: "NATIVE-L Issues Pertaining to Aboriginal Peoples"
| <NATIVE-L@TAMVM1.BITNET>
|From: NativeNet%gnosys.svle.ma.us@tamvm1.tamu.edu
|Subject: Western Shoshone Emergency! (Dann sisters)
|X-To: nn.general@gnosys.svle.ma.us
|To: Multiple recipients of list NATIVE-L <NATIVE-L@TAMVM1.BITNET>
|Original-Sender: milo@scicom.alphacdc.com (Michele Lord)
|Original-Subject: A Chance To Do The Right Thing
[Copied without permission from the Rocky Mountain News, Sunday, Dec. 6, 1992.]
OTHER VOICES
Rocky Mountain News
Board of Editorial Contributors
Glenn Morris is an associate professor of political science and director of the
Fourth World Center for the Study of Indigenous Law and Politics at CU-Denver.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A Chance To Do The Right Thing
Indian policy can't be blamed on ancestors this time
By Glenn Morris
Whenever I discuss U.S. American Indian policy with non-Indians
this retort is submitted: "I refuse to take responsibility for the
sins of my ancestors. I have never harmed any Indians, and I will
only take responsibility for those things that I can control."
Fair enough.
During the recent Columbus Day protests around the country,
those of us who were critical of continuing the official adulation
of Christopher Columbus were labeled "historical revisionists,"
"naysayers," and even "stormtroopers."
Supporters of Columbus were incapable of connecting his legacy
to the very real injustices that continue today. In particular, we
were criticized for living in the past and for being insufficiently
forward-looking.
Quite the contrary was true; our message was one of hope for a
future that will be much more positive than the past. Our fear was
that if past errors and injustices were not acknowledged then those
mistakes would be repeated and a just and respectful future would
be difficult to obtain. Little did we know that we would have to
wait only six weeks before our fear was realized.
As you read these words, the United States government, your
government, is invading and attacking the Western Shoshone Indian
Nation. This attack is not occurring in Brazil or Guatemala, it is
happening in what you call the state of Nevada. To the Shoshone,
their homeland is known as Newe Sogobia, and it has been under
their stewardship from time immemorial.
In 1863, the United States, seeking a rail route from the
California gold fields to the Civil War-ravaged U.S. treasury,
entered into a treaty with the Western Shoshone. The Treaty of Ruby
Valley ceded no territory to the United States, and it allowed only
a limited number of activities by the U.S., including the
construction of a railroad through Shoshone territory.
Despite the treaty, the United States allowed its citizens to
encroach on Shoshone lands in blatant violation of U.S. law. When
the Shoshone objected, the U.S. forced the cases into the Indian
Claims Commission and the U.S. Supreme Court, two judicial forums
controlled by the party accused of violating the treaty.
The Shoshone never agreed to sell their land, and their title
had never been extinguished as required under law. Not
surprisingly, the courts ignored their own laws and ordered that
the Shoshone Nation be paid for land that the Indians never sold -
more than 24 million acres of land at its 1872 value of $26
million. The Shoshones have refused the money to this day, although
their lawyers received $2.5 million off the top of the award.
Mary and Carrie Dann are two Western Shoshone sisters, the
matriarchs of a community of self-sufficient Western Shoshone
ranchers. Their family has lived and cared for their lands since
long before there was a United States. The Treaty of Ruby Valley
guaranteed them undisturbed use of their traditional lands forever.
Forever was until 1973. That year the Bureau of Land Management
cited the Danns for trespassing on "BLM lands." The Danns defense
was their treaty, still in force, and never repudiated by either
side. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court where the U.S.
position prevailed.
Shoshone elder Glenn Holley succinctly summarized U.S. dealings
with the Shoshone people when he said, "Nothing happened in 1872.
No land was `taken' by the government. We never lost that land, and
we're not selling it. In our religion, it is forbidden to take
money for land. What's really happening is that the U.S. government
. . . is stealing the land from us right now."
On Nov. 19, 1992 - not 1492, not 1892, but 1922 - The United
States began a military assault on the Western Shoshone Nation at
the Dann Ranch. They imposed a media and transportation blockade at
the ranch while they commenced a roundup and seizure of the
livestock that is the lifeblood of the Dann Band of Shoshone
Indians. When one of the Dann family members tried to stop the
invasion by pouring gasoline over himself and igniting it, federal
officials beat him and charged him with assaulting federal
officers. The federal invasion force also assaulted Carrie Dann.
The Danns and other Western Shoshone people have pledged that
they will not allow the United States to steal the last vestiges of
their freedom from them. They have pledged that they will resist
this latest invasion to their last breaths. Raymond Yowell, chief
of the Western Shoshone National Council, in a Nov. 22 letter to
President Bush, wrote,
"The situation is critical, and the danger of innocent blood
being spilled is growing by the hour. I have been authorized by the
Western Shoshone National Council to inform you . . . of the serious
violations against our people that your agents have committed. You
have the executive power to stop this. Whether you have the courage
to discipline your own bureaucrats and order them to honor the
treaty made between our two nations, remains to be seen."
Now we're not talking about Columbus or Custer or some other
demon of the past, we are talking about right now in the United
States of America, before your very eyes. We are witnessing another
shameful chapter of U.S. Indian policy being written - in your
name. Call the President. Call your Senators. Call your
representative. Tell them that these actions do not represent you
or your family. Tell them to stop it. Tell them to leave the
Shoshone alone and to honor the Treaty of Ruby Valley. This time
there are no excuses. This time you cannot blame your ancestors. If
you let it happen this time, the blood is on your hands.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michele Lord + If you have come here to help me,
+ you are wasting your time.....
Alpha Institute + But if you have come because
+ your liberation is bound up with mine,
milo@scicom.alphacdc.com + then let us work together.
Aboriginal Woman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--
My viewpoint, in telling the history of the United States, is different:
that we must not accept the memory of states as our own. Nations are not
communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as
the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes
exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters
and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and
sex. And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners,
it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on
the side of the executioners.
-- Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States," pp.9-10, in
response to Kissinger's stmt, "History is the memory of states," in
his book "A World Restored"